Tag: mohun bagan

Throwback to 48 years back: When Pele enthralled Calcutta playing against Mohun Bagan

The ‘football king’ or the ‘black pearl’ Pele, widely regarded brought Calcutta (now Kolkata), the Mecca of Indian football to a standstill on September 24, 1977, exactly 48 years ago on this day. It was a grand historic moment when the Brazilian icon Pele visited India for the first time to play a friendly at the Eden Gardens for his then club New York Cosmos against our Mohun Bagan. Pele, who had already won 3 world cups for Brazil, was in the twilight of his career at 38. Still his mere presence on the slushy pitch was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Calcutta people to witness the immortal legend in action on Indian soil, all credit to the legendary Shri Dhiren Dey, the then Secretary of Mohun Bagan, who showed his guts and caliber to organise such a big event.

Understandably, every corner of the ground was jam-packed with above 80,000 odd crowd and the tickets were very hard to buy. The PK Banerjee-coached Mariners not only stopped Pele from scoring a goal, but almost won 2-1 before a controversial penalty made it a 2-2 draw against the star-studded New York Cosmos. Md. Habib and Shyam Thapa were the scorers for the national club. The thriller ‘Pele show’ not only recooked up the Bengal’s tryst with the ‘beautiful game’, but also escalated Mohun Bagan’s spirit to go on to win triple crown (IFA Shield, Durand Cup and Rovers Cup) that season (‘1977-78) for the first time in club’s history under the able captaincy of Subrata Bhattacharya, aka Bablu da. Prior to that, the club’s moral was upset with the surprising defeats in the CFL derby and the Federation Cup final, even having a star-studded side.

The Bagan soldiers fought bravely to hold on world class Cosmos side, with Pele, Carlos Alberto, Chinaglia, etc, to a draw and made our nation proud. So Pele’s visit obviously has left an indelible mark on Kolkata’s and India’s football history and the match will be cherished by the Bagan fans forever.

Let’s catch up some of the glimpses of the match here to feel the aura.

 

 

 



 



 

Bagan complete the signings of the cricket squad

Last season didn’t see much success of the Mohun Bagan cricket team. This time, the Mohun Bagan AC management looks determined to turn the wind again in club’s favour under new cricket secretary Mr. Samrat Bhowmick. Mohun Bagan has built quite a strong and balanced side for the ‘2025-26 season, recruiting a good number of seasoned campaigners in the likes of Anustup Majumder, Arindam Ghosh, Prinann Dutta, Rajkumar Pal, Vivek Singh, etc. Abhimanyu Eswaran, Abhishek Raman, Shakir Habib Gandhi, Ishan Porel and Pradipta Pramanick are also very popular names in the local cricket circuit. 

The signing formalities of the squad have been completed yesterday, 10th Sep afternoon. Here, we can to get to see the names and photo of the players together. Hope, the current season will turn out to be a massive success for Mohun Bagan.

Remembering Sailen Manna the great on his birth anniversary (1st Sept, 1924 to 27th Feb, 2012)

Sailendra Nath Manna, better known as Sailen Manna, left Howrah Union in 1942 to join Mohun Bagan Athletic Club and served for an impressive 19 odd years, retiring in 1960. He captained the team for six successive seasons from 1950 to 1955. Remarkably, he never accepted any remuneration from the club, choosing instead to rely solely on his salary from his office Geological Survey of India. It was under his captaincy, Mohun Bagan clinched the first Durand Cup title in 1953 the first Rovers Cup title in 1955. Mohun Bagan and Sailen Manna absolutely became synonymous.

Manna was a crucial member of the Indian Olympics football team thrice 1948, 1952 and 1956. Perhaps, he was skipper of the Indian team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Under Sailen Manna’s captaincy, India won the Gold Medal in the inaugural 1951 Asian Games at New Delhi. He was an indispensable member of the Indian side in 1954 Asian Games too. He was a tough but disciplined defender with great reputation of taking strong free-kicks as well.

In 1953, the England Football Association (FA) rated him among the 10 best skippers of the world in their yearbook. Manna was awarded the Padma Shri in 1971 by the Government of India. He was also awarded the “Footballer of the Millennium” by All India Football Federation (AIFF) in 2000. Sailen Manna was awarded the inaugural “Mohun Bagan Ratna”, the highest honour of the Mohun Bagan AC in 2001. The Drainage Canal Road in his hometown Howrah has been named as Sailen Manna Sarani of late, while the Howrah Maidan is now Sailen Manna Stadium recognising the immortal legend by the West Bengal Government.